How many generations does your family tree go back in the United States?

[ringmastery]

Do you know when your first ancestors arrived and the circumstances?

[thinkingwoman]

1. since before there was a U.S.

I've got branches littering the landscape since colonial times. This is MY country and I'm not going anywhere.

Oh, sorry, you didn't ask anything about leaving did you? Pardon me. ;-)

[GOPisEvil]

2. Just one grandparent...but her roots go back to the 1830s.

My father was in line for a small inheritance, and the attorney that researched the lineage took his mother's family back to the original member coming from Ireland in the 1830s. Now my grandfather? :shrug:

My mother is first generation American, having been born in Japan.

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. 1901

My great grandmother emigrated from Russia when she was 7 years old. She grew up and met a dashing young revolutionary at a Communist Party rally with Leon Trotsky at MSG. A few years later my grandma was born, then a few years after that my dad was born, then a few years later - me.

Oh, and my other side emigrated from Italy around the same time, but that side has no cool Communist Party stories.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

27. A Matza Pizza-Typical NY Combo

Must be an interesting combination-is it all about food in your family? :-)

[slinkerwink]

4. back to the american revolution on my dad's side, and a hundred years

ago on my mom's side.

[Fuzz]

5. Me. My parents are German & Lithuanian

and came here in 1959. I was adopted in 1967, so biologically I don't know and don't care.

[murielm99]

6. My great-grandparents on my father's side came here from Germany

when my grandpa was about nine. So, my dad is a first-generation American. My great-grandmother came here from Sweden as a young woman, married here, had her children here. My mom is second generation.

They all farmed in Minnesota. As the story goes, great-grandpa was avoiding the draft in Germany. My grandfather served in World War I, and my father in World War II.

[vi5]

7. Early part of last century I think......

My grandmother was born here in 1924 and she has older sisters so I think my great grandparents (who were immigrants) probably came here at the turn of the century.

[LionInWinter]

8. All 4 of my grandparents were the first in their families born here.

Canada, New Zealand, Prussia, Hungary & Poland

[WyLoochka]

9. 1630s

GrtGrtGrtGrtGrt...Grandfather Hezekiah, of Boston, was the first publisher in the colonies.

[nickinSTL]

11. 1751

My great great great great great great grandfather came from a small town in Germany in 1751.

[grannylib]

39. hey cool...bet that makes for some interesting genealogical research

when you can go back that far...

[madrchsod]

10. mother`s side

of the family was involved in the whiskey rebellion in pa., so they were around before the war. father`s side in 1878

[DyedNTheWoolDemocrat]

12. All of my grandparents are first generation Americans, on both sides

We've had this conversation in my family - that all the first generation has passed now, and we are all but second generation Americans.

Pretty amazing when you think about it. We have relatives and ancestors in Europe still.

[Bunny]

13. My Mom's people were here prior to the Revolution.

Dad's side got here in the 1850's, thanks to the Great Famine in Ireland.

[cally]

50. Almost the same with me

My Mom's family has an ancestor who arrived on the Plymouth. Many of her ancestors were active in the Revolution--George Mason. My maternal Grandmother came during the Irish famine. My Dad is second generation from Ireland.

[markus]

14. The Folse's go back 300 years in Louisiana

Jean Jacques (Jacob) Folse was the first my Mormon-converted sister can find.

We find endless entertainment in my Mormon relations attempt to identify our relations back to Adam and Eve, particularly the tenuous relations to royalty scattered around the south of Europe.

Up here in Fargo, N.D. most people are third or fourth generation. Every year in primary school, they do a section on genealogy, and my kids win the "Great-Great-Great-Great..." bragging rights every time.

"Je suis un vrais Acadiene du Louisianne, mais je ne parle pas Francais." I can also order dinner impecably, but don't speak French.

[Odallas]

15. Multi-great grandfather James Stoneman Arrived in 1732

Was kidnapped near the Thames river in England and brought here to live in indentured servitude for 8 years. He was 10 years old and never saw his old family again.

[phaseolus]

16. 4 or 5 generations

Mom's side, "Old Lutherans" who settled in SE wisconsin around 1840. The local princes evidently wanted everyone to join a state-controlled church, so they left and came here. Dad's side, draft dodgers who were tired of dying in stupid wars for rich people. I imagine, though can't prove, that I have ancestors in Mecklenburg who were sent to Russia by the local duke to fight for Napoleon & never came back, so by the 1860s my family didn't want to fight Poland or whoever was the enemy that year & settled here...

[eyesroll]

17. My maternal grandfather came here as a child in 1916 or so

All of my great-grandparents were immigrants, and came here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Russia, Poland and Britain. (I'm mostly Russian.)

I've never heard their immigration stories, but from what I understand, they were fairly typical Ellis Island-type arrivals. My grandfather's name, I know, was Americanized -- he started off life as Jehuda Laibe (sp?), and became Leo J. I know the last name was Americanized as well, but I'm not sure what it started out as.

[indepat]

18. My seven-months-old great-grandson is fourteenth generation on my

surname line.

[NoPasaran]

19. 1910's

Three of my four grandparents came through Ellis Island, the fourth via Canada.

My paternal grandfather came over on the German liner George Washington which was seized in New York harbor in 1917 and later carried President Wilson to France for the Versailles Conference.

[Shadder]

20. The first known birth in America for my family was 1686

in Montgomery County,Virginia. His father was born abt 1662 in England. No idea as to when he came over, why, or where he came in at.

[Spider Jerusalem]

21. First ancestor in the direct male line arrived in Maryland in 1665...

but my earliest ancestor in what would become the United States, one Thomas Savage, arrived in Jamestown in February of 1608, at which time the colony numbered less than 100 people. He was given as hostage to Powhatan, chief of the Powhatan confederacy and father of Pocahontas, in exchange for one of his men, who was taken to England and presented to the Queen (and died there of smallpox). He lived with the Indians for several years, learned their language and customs, and returned to the colony as an interpreter and intermediary.

One of the most interesting people on my family tree...

[Jack Rabbit]

22. Depends on the branch

I have some ancestors who arrived from Europe in the mid-nineteenth century.

However, the best documented branch of my family is Boone. Squire Boone was born in Devonshire, England in 1696. He died in North Carolina in 1777. He married Sarah Morgan (1720) in Pennsylvania. They had tweleve children.

Their most famous child was Daniel Boone (1734-1820) the Pioneer.

I am descended from their youngest child, Hannah Boone (1746-1824) and her first husband, John Stewart.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

23. On my father's side.

13 generations.
First one arrived in 1635, from England, to Jamestown, Va.
I believe he was a younger son (therefore, no inheirtance).
Another ancestor left Germany in 1740 (left his wife and most of his children behind) because he made his "feudal overlord" angry.

[masshole]

24. The Mayflower

I have a somewhat uncommon surname, and was able to trace the origins of it back to 1490, to Staffordshire, England.
According to some of my "relatives" I have encountered on a couple of genealogy sites, we had two ancestors on the Mayflower.

A great site is http://www.ellisisland.org/ .

One of my relatives was a passenger on the Lusitania on its last voyage before it was sunk.

[bobthedrummer]

40. My ancestry also goes back to The Mayflower

We have traced our roots as far back to a person named Rolf, The Norseman circa 920A.D.-a Viking.

[BrotherBuzz]

49. More Mayflower

12 to Soule, 13 to Alden. Sadly, they were both strangers on the Mayflower and have no family history before arriving in the New World. A clean slate.

[rockymountaindem]

25. I'm an eastern-European menage...

One of my great-grandparents came over from Rumania in the 1880s, but I'm not sure where the rest of my dad's family came from. On my mom's side, I have family from Belorussia and Odessa (not too proud of the Ukranian part) and also from Poland (Russian at the time). My Great-great grandparents were killed in a pogrom in 1903, and their two boys, Herman and Leon Blumen, fled to France when they were 12 and 14 respectively. They got seperated there and Herman came to the US and changed his name to Blum. When Leon Blum became the PM of France in 1935, there was great speculation in my family that he was Herman's long-lost brother. He was the right age, claimed to be from Russia (at the time of his flight, that part of Poland was under Russian control) and supposedly looked just like Herman. We can't prove this but there's a pretty good chance I'm related to the first Jewish Socialist PM of France (one of the people the Nazis hated the most, no doubt)! As you can see, my liberal lineage extends back several generations...

[Rowdyboy]

26. A couple from England in 1619, more in the 1630's

One branch has been traced to the late 1300's through church baptismal records. They came from rural France (Hugonauts). Another branch from the Rhone Valley in Germany around 1740.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

28. 1630s-Maternal Grandmother's side

had a farm in Cambridge when my crowded little city was full of cows and meadows. Part of family moved down South. My Grandma was born in TN.

Maternal Grandfather's side: came to Boston in early 19th century from Norway. Mixed with local WASPs.

Paternal Great-Grandmother was from Wales and emigrated in late 19th century. Married an Irishman whose ancestors came from the North. Mixed marriage (Catholic/Protestant)-scandalous back then!

Paternal grandfather's side were Potato Famine Irish. There are firemen, cops and union organizers all over this side of the family. My grandfather was a trade unionist (socialist).

[spinbaby]

29. I'm the first to be born here

My parents came over about a month before I was born.

[Burma Jones]

30. LONG LONG AGO

Mom's side was kicked out of England back in the late 1600's. Dad's side got here in the early 1700's. I think someone in Dad's side backed Cromwell and had to go to Northern Ireland during the Restoration, and from there, America.

My Wife's family is very interesting. My Father in Law was born in Germany in 1938, their family is Jewish. They got out the day after Krystalnacht only because my wife's aunt had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was four, saw her grandparents on the Swiss side of the border and ran past the Nazi border guards to greet them. The Border Guards let her go and waved the rest of the family on into Switzerland, and from there they made it to the USA. When I think......I just shudder.

[libertad]

31. I guess since pre-history on one side and since late 1800s on

the other side.
(Yaqui and Cherokee on one side and Swedish on the other.)

[grannylib]

32. My maternal grandfather's grandmother came here from Norway in

1858; members of my mom's family still live and work the family farm in northeast Iowa; been in the family since 1872. Members of many Norwegian and other Scandinavian families came here as indentured servants; in this case, they ended up as virtual slaves to a mining company in Michigan. 43 members of a group including my great-whatever-grandma were able to pay for their freedom by appealing to the Norwegian community in Iowa for help and walked from Michigan to Fort Snelling in St. Paul, spent the winter there, then walked to northeast Iowa. Half the company died of cholera on the way, but one baby was also born on that part of the journey, and that baby was my great-grandfather. Once the women and children were settled with friends and relatives in Iowa, the men all walked to the Dakotas and worked in the wheat fields to earn the money to pay back the Iowa farmers, and to establish their own farms. There are many descendents of this group still in the NE Iowa area.

[lpbk2713]

33. Father's parents came from Ireland, mother's from Scotland.

Around the turn of the century (nineteenth to twentieth). Paternal grandfather worked on the cross-country railroad, later was a gold and silver prospector.

[ewagner]

34. On my Fathers side

it was a Hessian Soldier who switched sides.

My mother's side, English, migrated to Canada and then to the US.

[MSchreader]

35. 1810, on my father's side; 1880 on my mother's

My father's side came here after the Napoleonic Wars -- reason unknown. My mother's side came here because they were being subjected to pogroms (even after converting to Christianity).

Wilhelm Schreader -- oldest one we can find -- fought in the War of 1812. His son (name unknown) fought in the Mexican War, and was a "free soil" delegate to the founding convention of the Republican Party. His son, Henry John Sr. (aka John Henry), was in Company B, 7th Michigan Infantry, through the entire Civil War, serving from just after Bull Run through Appomattox. His son, Henry John Jr., served in the Spanish-American War and World War One. His son, Clarence Franklin ("Bill"), served in World War Two (as part of the 101st Airborne, and went in with the first wave on D-Day). His son, Thomas William, volunteered to serve during Vietnam, but was assigned to field artillery and did not go. His sons, me (Martin Elliott) and my brother, Mason Lucas, are the first Schreader sons to NOT serve in the military.

The Zucker/Melcher side (my mother's) is rather nondescript. The only relatively famous or notable person on that side is my great uncle, Mick Condell, who was born on Feb. 29, and is a make-up artist for movies. My grandfather (mother's father), Herbert Clarence, served in the Pacific during WWII, and was awarded the Purple Heart. His oldest son, David, was one of the first Conscientious Objectors during Vietnam (1965, IIRC).

Martin

[La Lioness Priyanka]

36. zero

i moved here when i was 17

[FlaGranny]

37. On my father's side

some of his brothers were born in Great Britain, he was born in the US. On my mother's side, I'm not sure. My grandfather told me that one of my (unknown number of greats) grandfathers was a king's messenger (I guess a sort of postman), so I'm guessing that puts at least one of my ancestors here before or near the time of the Revolution. My mother's side of the famliy has been very difficult to track back, but I do know one of my great-great grandfathers fought in the Civil War for the North.

[fudge stripe cookays]

38. Various timeframes, mostly Kraut

1. Smith- Early 1700s- Western New York/Eastern Pennsylvania, eventually migrated to southern Wisconsin. Word was GGGfather was Dutch, with the name Schmit, but changed it to Smith because his wife's family were English doctors and he wanted to sound respectable. 2 of their sons fought for the union in the Civil War.

2. Boockmeier-- Jurgen Boockmeier came over around 1820-something. His grave was one of the first in the Calumet County Cemetery in New Holstein, Wisconsin.

3. Rennscheidt - My great grandmother and grandfather came from Gladbeck, near Essen. This name is so rare, that if you know anyone with it, they are related to me. They came through Ellis Island in 1913 and settled in Belleville, Illinois. (Name was originally Von Remscheid, a town nearby)

4. Gravlin- (Was originally Baudreau de Gravelines) Urbain (my 7th or 8th Ggrandfather) originally traveled to Quebec from Clermont in France in the early 1600s. He was a syndic in Montreal. He had tons of kids and grandkids, many of whom became adventureurs, settling all over Canada, Detroit, and the Mississippi Gulf region.

Also, the names Fish and Crittenden/Cruttenden- both came from England in the early 1600s (Fish is traceable to 1475 England!). There are huge trees from both sides.

For anyone interested in research, try these sites:
www.genforum.com
www.rootsweb.com
www.istg.com

I've found wonderful connections on just about all of these (I have found multiple 2nd and 3rd cousins once removed, all of whom have provided great data for my search!)

[Samurai_Writer]

41. I'm 2nd generation american...

My father's parents were Jews who came from Germany. My grandfather in the 1870s. He was 4 years old. My grandmother in the very early 1900s, when she was in grade school. I'm not sure what prompted the move to the U.S., but my grandfather ended up as a professional boxer in the late 1880s, then went on to found the first union in St. Louis (Local #1, Pipe Fitters and Coverers). He died of lung cancer in the 1940s, and I never knew him (I was born in 1960). My grandmother died about the same time as my grandfather (a year earlier) from diabetes complications.

On my mother's side, I believe her grandparents came from Germany, Wales, and Ireland. My grandfather was one of the first motorcycle cops in St. Louis in the 1920s, then went on to become a carpenter. He died in 1980, and my grandmother died in 1992.

[northzax]

42. not that it particularly matters

but my first ancestor stateside was Stephen Bachiler, b. 1561 in England, graduated St. John's College, Oxford 1587, excomunicated from the Anglican Church in 1593, emmigrated to the colonies in 1632 (at the age of 71) settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a preacher, was kicked out and founded the town of Hampton, NH in 1637, proceeded to get excommunicated sometime between '38 and 42, Moved to Portsmouth in '47, was widowed for the third time, and took a housekeeper, Mary Bailey, and proceeded to marry her in secret. Mary then had an affair (she was 26, after all, and he was 80-something) for which she was caught and forced to wear a red A on her clothing. The town council forced Stephen to take her back, but he fled, again, this time back ot England, in 1654 (at the age of 93) where he died in '64.

There is strong evidence to suggest that Nathanial Hawthorne (an expert in the history of Kittery and Portsmouth in colonial times) based Hester Prynne on Mary Bailey, meaning Rev. Chillingsworth would be great great great whatever Stephen.

[Bertha Venation]

43. 1873 -- Waldheim, South Russia

I'm told this is now part of Poland. My great-great grandfather Peter Heidebrecht left Waldheim in 1873, went to Kansas but shortly settled permanently in Oklahoma.

Unfortunately, this is all I know.

[GumboYaYa]

44. Way, way back on my maternal side.

My maternal grandmother's father (my great grandfather) was Blackfoot.

My maternal grandfather's family came from France and were among the first setllers in Louisiana.

My dad's family immigrated from Germany in the 1930's. My paternal great Grandfather was Jewish and my paternal great Grandmother was Catholic. Mixed marriages were among the first people discriminated against in Nazi Germany. Fortunately, my family fled early enough to survive.

[dawn]

45. My father's parents arrived here from Sicily in the '20s...

My mom's side of the family has been in the US since, oh, the late 1700's. The thirteenth signer of the Declaration of Independence is a great-great-great-great relative of mine. :) He came here from Northern Ireland.

[cmf]

46. Don't know, really

Many of my ancestors were slaves. I don't have the luxury of knowing where they came from and when.

My father's ancestors can be traced back to Portugal, but I don't recall when they came over. It was really funny, because until my cousin's wife began researching it, we had assumed that they were of French decent because we had a French last name. But it turns out that our branch of the family changed their name at some point in the 1800's because of a family feud.

This question always makes me bitter.

[mopinko]

54. you don't have to despair

it is not impossible to trace slave ancestors. if it would make you feel less bitter, you should try.
do you know about the recent relatives? any "old-timers" still around?

[everythingsxen]

47. Ancient

Sometime in the 1680s my Moms side of the family set foot in Pennsylvania in the form of Dutch traders. They mixed with English and Scottish immigrants.

My dads side of the family goes back about the same, except for one of my great-great grandfathers on his side actually arrived here, well,. um.. when did the Native Tribes walk across the glacier from asia? :P

[SarahB]

48. Mayflower on my dad's side, 1840's on my mom's

[Mrs. Venation]

51. My Paternal Ancestry Arrived in the 1760's

and settled in Caroll County, VA. We haven't been able to find any records of them prior to their arrival in the colonies, so we don't know the circustances of their emmigration.

[Westegg]

52. 1620s.

Apparently (and this kills me), they were granted most of Long Island by the King of England.

Typical of my family, however, they managed to off-load all of it long before it was worth something.

[BlueStateGirl]

53. John POrter. Arrived in 1719, Baltimore, MD. 12 generations

on that line. And to the 1680's on Twigg line.
All on my mother's side.

My father's ancestors are more recent...mid 1800's early 1900's.

[mopinko]

55. fun thread. close to the old sod here

mom's mom amd dad's dad came from ireland. next generation back they were all there. dad's dad was a little kid when they came over. an aunt did a geneology book, so i have a lot of info about dad's side. mom's side, don't know much.

[AngryAmish]

56. My folks came here in the 50s from Ireland

My paternal grandfather tried to come over, but they kicked him out.

[JohnKleeb]

57. well

on my dad's to the civil war era, they were Irish and Germans who settled in Pittsburgh, Pa. on my mom's not even a 100 years ago, and they settled in Johnstown, Pa, they were Slovak and Slovene.

[proud patriot]

58. Well depends on what side of my family you look at

On my Dad's side of the family are my Irish/Scottish genes
and they came over just prior to the civil war .

On my moms side of the family are my English/
Native American (Seminole and Cherokee) genes ....
early 1700's and already here since the bering strait bridge .

[Lydia Leftcoast]

59. Relatively recent

Father's side: both of his parents emigrated from Norway around 1900

Mother's side: her mother was born in 1899, three weeks after her parents came from Germany. My mother's father came from Latvia (by way of various adventures) in 1908.

This means that three of my four grandparents were born in Europe, and one just missed being born in Europe.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

60. Some to the 1600s...

others the late 19th century.

The oldest I know of was a settler in the second Jamestown colony. The most recent was my great grandmother, who came here from Sweden in the 1880s.

What I wonder is when people are going to start leaving.

[Sandpiper]

61. Mom's side goes back to Jamestown

Dad's side came to North Carolina around 1800.

[Nikia]

62. First European ancestor-16th century

He came from Holland and was related to both my paternal grandfather's parents (He was their only common ancestor though)and settled in Virginia. All my great-great grnadparents were born in the U.S. Most were colonists that settled in Virginia, New York, or Pennsylvania.

[Mr. Socko]

63. My relatives came here in 1902 through Ellis Island...

the Handt family. :)

My mom's mom (so my great-grandma) was a native american...so her family has been here for many generations beforehand.

[MAlibdem]

64. 1840s

potato famine on irish side, then 1900-1920s on jewish side...pogroms

[elfwitch]

65. If I wanted to I could...

be a member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. So that goes back to at least 1845. It could go back further than that. Texas was a republic from 1836-1845.

[UrbScotty]

66. Only three on my mom's side.

They were all Polish. They moved here about a century ago.

I don't know about my dad's side; they are German.

[Nevernose]

67. 9 -- 1712

We suspect eh was some kind of refugee from Scotland or Northern Ireland.

[Cuban_Liberal]

68. First-generation here, both sides.

My Dad came here from Mexico in 1971, and my Mom came here from Cuba in 1974.

[SmileyBoy]

69. I'm something like 1 1/2-generation American.

My father is a Turkish immigrant, and the only one in his family living in the US.

On my mother's side, my mother's father was an immigrant from Karelia (Finnish Russia), and my mother's mother was a first-generation American from Virginia, MN. Her parents (my great-grandmother and great-grandfather) were immigrants from Finland.

Therefore, I don't have to claim any responsibility for slavery or the massacre of the Native Americans.

[Mr. McD]

70. There are 9 generations in America,

11 generations in Ireland, and 7 generations traced to Scotland before that.

Lieutenant Bryan McDonald served in Col. Francis Toole's regiment under King James II. Bryan McDonald received a warrant from William Penn for 239 acres in Miln Creek Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, 18 November 1689

he came from Arklow, County Wicklow, Ireland

[geniph]

71. I'm third-generation

My great-grandparents came over from Galway at around the turn of the century.

[achtung_circus]

72. 1738

On the sailing ship Pink Mary from Amsterdam, carrying Palantine Germans to New York. In New York State until the American Revolution where my family were what Americans would call Tories and Canadians would call Loyalists. Fought in the King's Royal Regiment of New York, moved to Kingston area of Ontario in 1784, Canadian since.